


Value of a Moment

by EmeraldHeiress



Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Hurt, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Protective Roy Harper, Young Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26616784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldHeiress/pseuds/EmeraldHeiress
Summary: “Who the fuck is Little Wing?” Jason whipped his head around, looking for another suit sneaking up on him.“It’s you, Jason.”His heart stopped and he froze. “How do you know my name?”
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Roy Harper & Jason Todd
Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932781
Comments: 14
Kudos: 447





	Value of a Moment

He had been so scared. He hadn’t known any of them. The last thing he had remembered was falling asleep on his mattress. He’d just found an old tossed out mattress behind the thrift store. It was just big enough for him and he’d even managed to sneak it into the little room he’d claimed in the old Towers apartment building. No one went up as high as he did. It was dangerous if you were too big, but he was still little enough that it was safe. Safe for him and safe _from_ _them_.

He’d lived there since Mama died three months ago.

Suddenly he was on the roof of the Meyer building in the _Diamond District_ with a mask he had never seen before standing over him and swimming in clothes four times his size. Jason had caught a flash of someone jumping away, the mask staring after them, frustrated, before he’d turned to Jay. 

He thought he was gonna die right there. 

“Hood?”

 _Who the fuck was Hood?_ Jason thought as he scrambled back, terrified. “Shit, I didn’t do it. Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” 

An expression he’d never seen before crossed the man’s face. “Shh, Little Wing, it’s okay. You’re not in trouble.”

“Who the fuck is Little Wing?” Jason whipped his head around, looking for another suit sneaking up on him. 

“It’s you, Jason.” 

His heart stopped and he froze. “How do you know my name?”

“Oh, Jay… I’ll explain. Just let me get you home.”

“Don’t have one.” He answered automatically then winced. Shit, he was gonna wind in foster care if he kept slipping like that. The look the man gave him was so hurt… he had no idea what to do with that. And he sure as shit didn’t know what to do when the goddamned _Batman_ showed up and picked him up and swept him off to the mansion on the hill.

Fucking _Bruce Wayne_ man. 

Apparently in another life he’d gone and gotten himself adopted.

Apparently in another life he’d gone and gotten himself _killed_.

No one would say it. No one would say anything… but you didn’t grow up in the slums and on the streets without learning to read between the lines. 

Gotham was fucking weird.

He didn’t stay dead. He’d come back with some crazy-ass vengeance plan that had screwed up all his relationships with the family. He must have done something _awful_. He could see it in their eyes when they looked at him. The relief that it wasn’t Other Him.

They loved This Him… and he loved them. _So much._ He had never thought he would have so much love in his life. Bruce was _amazing_. And Alfred. He had a _grandfather_ and a sister! Three sisters! 

And more brothers than he knew what to do with! (Though, he was lucky he knew how to throw some punches because he honestly thought Damian was trying to kill him. But he could handle a kid his own age… right?)

Then this woman had come to the Cave. (The fucking _Batcave_ was under his _house!_ Holy shit!) Now they were gonna turn him back. 

They were talking over him, Bruce and Zatanna. His siblings were chatting with the League (WONDER WOMAN HAD RUFFLED HIS HAIR) and now they were all waiting for Zatanna to be ready for the spell. He was just… sitting quietly. Waiting to lose his family again.

He sniffled and swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn’t understand. If they didn’t want that version of him, why were they trying to get him back?

“Jaybird?” A gentle voice called from his left. He looked into a friendly face with warm green eyes. Arsenal, they’d said. Dick had implied he knew him as an adult. “What’s wrong, Jay?”

Caught up in his emotions, Jason didn’t notice as the attention in the Cave turned to him. His voice cracked in his throat. “When I’m big, they won’t want me anymore.” His vision blurred as he lost his battle. Tears began to fall from his lashes.

He couldn’t see the variety of emotions cross the faces of the members of the Batfamily. Or the venomous glare that Roy Harper sent all of them as he swept the boy into his arms.


End file.
